The Last House on the Left

source: The Last House on the Left

The Last House on the Left

This is a horrible film and not because of the subject matter. "I Spit on Your Grave" (1978), a film with a similar theme and settings, is far, far superior to this trash. The acting is embarrassingly bad. The script is illogical and stupid. The characters are one-dimensional caricatures. The cinematography is grainy and soft. The music is cheesy. The direction is obviously the work of a hack. The overuse of closeups is annoying. Craven repeatedly pans the camera to something totally irrelevant to the plot. It looks like the budget for this film was about $1.98 and that some of that money was returned to the producer. Some films are trashy but enjoyable. This isn't one of them.

I found this film to be rather interesting in a number of ways. Yes, I would agree that it has many unpleasantries throughout the film: two women are raped, stabbed, shot, and brutally killed, one man loses his manhood in a rather disconcerting fashion, and another man is chainsawed to bits. Yet, through all this, the film has many highlights when viewed as a product of its time and with regard to its importance to the horror genre. The film creates a disturbing atmosphere which really affects the viewer. The murders are cold-blooded and yet not glorified in any manner. The acting, although for the most part amateurish, is restrained and believable. A must see for any student of the horror genre.

I have seen a fair number of movies with unpleasant subject matter and repellent characters, but I have never despised any film as much as this one. I think it may be a perverse testament to its impact that even reminding myself " it's only a movie" doesn't help. I've read all the arguments in its favor and seen a TV interview with Wes Craven talking about the impact of the Vietnam war on his direction, and I still cannot think of one positive thing to say about it. I saw it once a few years ago and will never see it again. Even the equally vile I Spit On Your Grave wasn't as disturbing as this. For me, there is not one redeeming feature about this movie...zero. I'm sorry I ever saw it and can only say in conclusion that sometimes sheer curiosity about a movie isn't enough to justify subjecting yourself to it.

I had never seen this movie before but was watching a "best horror movies of all time" thing on TV and it was in there so I thought I'd check it out. Now looking back, how this was included in a best of is beyond me. This has got to be one of the worst films of all time. It is so cheaply made and not in the least bit scary. I would not even categorize this as horror, it's so pathetically poor I was crying, should be in the violent comedy section at Blockbuster. To believe A Clockwork Orange came out a year before and this was all the creativity Wes Craven could come up with. The acting (if you can call it that) is non-existent, the effects are so laughable, the villains are stupid jerks who are not at all threatening, and why the hell is it even called TLHOTL? Looks like it was shot in someones back yard on a budget of six bucks. Halloween is everything this movie wanted to be and even that's very dated. Frighteningly bad.

A bizarrely stupid mess. Edited for comedy, not horror. Extremely inappropriate comical music throughout. Yes, straightforward depictions of violence against captive women, but done in amateurish fashion with unintentionally ridiculous actors. After the last victim is dispatched, the film disintegrates into absurd foolishness, reminiscent of an early Woody Allen film. Seems like it was done on a shoestring budget with only one shoestring. How Wes Craven found work after this debacle is beyond reason. It seems as if a few friends got together one Saturday with a video camera, had a few beers, had people in it who never acted before, and had a good time. Pure trash.